With a starting point in the Together: Building a Shared Community strategy (T:BUC) published in 2013 by the Government of Northern Ireland’s Executive Office, this study examines two of the strategy’s Key Priorities: Our Shared Community and Our Safe Community, in order to analyze contemporary peacebuilding efforts carried out by the Northern Irish government. The study is guided by the research question: Why might the strategic aims such as removing all interface barriers by 2023 in the T:BUC fail in their attempts to build peace? To answer this question, the thesis takes a qualitative methodological approach relying on both primary and secondary data and Carol Bacchi’s method of ‘What’s the Problem Represented to Be’ approach to poststructural policy analysis. This methodological approach is accompanied by Audra Mitchell’s theoretical framework of plural world-building. The study finds that the T:BUC strategy problematizes the interface barriers in Belfast, the usage of symbols such as flags, as well as the division of communities within Northern Ireland - all concepts that in this thesis are argued as important ‘threatworks’ and ‘world-building’ means of the conflicting communities in order to avoid violence. The thesis concludes that by interfering with these types of world-building means, the Northern Irish government risks inducing ‘radical violence’ to these ethno-national groups and perhaps provoking escalating violence amongst them.

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Abstract Tourism has developed into an important field of economy in the northern sparsely populated areas of Finland. State bodies of different spatial scales continuously put efforts to foster tourism growth and tourism is viewed as a prosperous economic path for the future. The prevailing tourism development is resort-oriented, which has transformed rural geographies in the North. Critical tourism geography research highlights that such market-driven tourism development has negative social and environmental consequences. Thus, tourism change needs to be examined from a broader perspective than economic benefits alone. It is required that tourism economy serves people and not vice versa. To increase sustainability in destination localities, collective economic agency in destinations is encouraged in tourism research and development. To date, tourism research has tended to draw on multiple, often contradicting, theoretical perspectives in an attempt to clarify how collective agency in tourism destinations should be best organized in order to foster social justice and ecological sustainability. The aim of this thesis is to understand how sustainability can be facilitated through local economic relations in resort-oriented destination development contexts. Sustainability discussions in tourism research are advanced by drawing on economic geography and its critical takes. The thesis consists of three studies that each examine sustainability in tourism destinations from a different viewpoint. The thesis first examines how (un)sustainability currently manifests in local economic relations and then discusses what changes are required to move towards more sustainable tourism futures. Ethnographically oriented case studies and a contemporary variant of the grounded theory method enables approaching tourism economies from the perspective of everyday tourism realities. The empirical part of the research is conducted in the Ruka and Ylläs destinations in the Finnish North. Insights were gathered by semi-structured in-depth interviews with local tourism actors in 2012 and 2015. The study introduces a poststructural political economy approach to sustainability transformations in tourism destinations. The less growth-focused economic thinking that exists in destinations is brought to light. Tourism actors’ motives and aims can differ drastically from the rationales of growth-focused tourism destination development that dominate in networked tourism governance. Many of the tourism actors desire conservation of natural and cultural environment in destinations. This creates conflict between the coexisting tourism paths. In the thesis, it is argued that economic difference in tourism should not be conceptualized merely as a source of diversification of tourism supply and thus as beneficial for destination growth; it should be recognized as political agency in tourism economy. Tourism networking is already now often value-driven, and this needs to be encouraged. That is, transformative agency for tourism change can be gained and new tourism paths created also through incremental changes ‘from below’, not only via policy actions. To contribute to the critical (economic) geography research on social and economic change, this thesis highlights that it is central to understand not only what new economic futures look like but also how to work towards them in everyday politics. Although the alternative and critical voices are valuable as they accurately state a socially just view of how things ought to be, these voices may not be the best way to bring about a change. This is because power hierarchies are not easily recognized in everyday tourism work. Each actor interprets the social from their subjective point of view. Even actors with the most power can have personal experiences of powerlessness. Thus, to foster change, it is necessary to facilitate the transformation of the existing conflictual inter-group relations. Dialogical everyday politics could work as a means to foster understanding of different groups’ tourism realities and their mutual influence. Conflict could be regarded not solely as an innate feature of capitalist economic relations but also as moments where mutual understanding can be facilitated. This is a way to establish local economic relations that enable community building. Destination sustainability touches not only firm-level practices but the mode of economic organization in tourism destinations. The thesis highlights that to advance social justice and environmental sustainability in destinations, destination development and planning should account for the possibility for a less growth-focused destination development path. As alternative tourism paths do not, as a rule, depend on new, large-scale tourism construction, they would likewise not foster growth in international tourist numbers and air travel. This unconventional view on economic path creation is to be encouraged as it is better in line with climate change mitigation needs and critical sustainability theorizing. / Original papers The original publications are not included in the electronic version of the dissertation. Kulusjärvi, O. (2016). Resort-oriented tourism development and local tourism networks – a case study from Northern Finland. Fennia 194: 1, 3–17. https://fennia.journal.fi/article/view/41450 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2019103136035 Kulusjärvi, O. (2017). Sustainable Destination Development in Northern Peripheries: A Focus on Alternative Tourism Paths. Journal of Rural and Community Development 12:2/3, 41–58. https://journals.brandonu.ca/jrcd/article/view/1466 http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/nbnfi-fe2018051524148 Kulusjärvi, O. (accepted). Towards just production of tourism space via dialogical everyday politics in destination communities. Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space.

Dejtingmarknaden för ungdomar idag kan ske likaväl genom ett fysiskt möte ute på krogen som genom en spontan “gillning” via en app. Vi människor utvecklar metoder för att presentera oss på det mest attraktiva sättet för potentiella partners oavsett om det handlar om att redigera en bild eller stå framför spegeln i timmar. Med tiden har utvecklingen inom dejtingmarknaden gjort det lättare för interaktion med andra, från tidningsannonser till online-dejtingwebbsidor till en av dagens populäraste mobila app Tinder. Syftet med denna studie är att studera svenska ungdomars uppfattning om dejtingappen Tinder ur två perspektiv, dels deras uppfattningar om Tinders möjligheter och begränsningar generellt vad gäller att hitta en partner, och dels deras uppfattningar om sin egen samt andras självrepresentation. För att besvara syftet har en kvalitativ metod använts med semistrukturerade intervjuer som insamlingsmetod för det empiriska materialet. Sex intervjupersoner utgör urvalet i studien, tre män och tre kvinnor, där samtliga är i åldern 20- 25 med erfarenhet av dejting via Tinder. Analysen av materialet sker ur ett genusperspektiv huvudsakligen där utgångsteorierna är socialkonstruktionism samt poststrukturalistisk feminism. Resultatet av studien visar att Tinder som dejtingresurs upplevs som en app med enorm enkelhet där den negativa aspekten är rädslan över att individerna bakom profilerna inte ska vara den de utger sig för att vara. Resultatet visar även att de manliga intervjupersonerna kopplar självrepresentation hos kvinnliga användare till en identitet utifrån hur Tinder konstruerar kön inom “samhället” Tinder där mötet är en omstart då den inledande kontakten främst handlar om den fysiska attraktionen än den psykiska. De kvinnliga användarna ser däremot självrepresentation som ett sätt att inledningsvis framstå som mer självsäker och den fysiska relationen skapar en förutsättning för den psykiska. Detta resultat utvecklades även till en identifiering av en maktrelation mellan de manliga och kvinnliga intervjupersonerna där det finns ett samspel på Tinder mellan att ha makt över och att ha makt att vilket visar hur maktrelationer på Tinder skapas och omvandlas. / The dating market for young people today can be through a physical meeting out at the pub just as well as through a spontaneous "liking" via an app. We humans develop methods to present ourselves in the most attractive way to potential partners, whether it is about editing an image or standing in front of the mirror for hours. Over time, developments within the dating market have made it easier for interaction with others, from newspaper ads to online dating sites to one of today's most popular mobile dating app Tinder. The purpose of this paper is to study Swedish youths´ perception of the dating app Tinder from two perspectives. On the one hand, their perceptions of Tinder's possibilities and limitations in general in finding a partner and on the other hand, their perceptions of their own and others' selfrepresentations. To answer the purpose, a qualitative method has been used with semistructured interviews as the collection method for the empirical material. Six interviewees make up the sample in the study, three men and three women, all of whom are aged 20-25 with experience of dating via Tinder. The analysis of the material was conducted from a gender perspective mainly where the used theories were social constructionism and poststructural feminism. The results of the study show that Tinder as a dating resource is experienced as an app with enormous simplicity where the negative aspect is the fear that the individuals behind the profiles should not be who they claim to be. The results also showed that the male interviewees link self-representation of female users to an identity based on how Tinder constructs the gender within the “community” Tinder where the meeting is a restart as the initial contact is mainly about the physical attraction rather than the psychological. The female users, on the other hand, saw self-representation as a way of initially appearing more self-confident and the physical relationship creates a prerequisite for the psychical one. This result also developed into an identification of a power relationship between the male and female interviewees where there is an interaction on Tinder between having power over and having power to which shows how power relations on Tinder are both created and transformed.

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A critical re-examination of the liberal peace is conducted to explore the ways in which certain ideas around peace have come to dominate and to be regarded as “common sense”. The foundation of my critique comes in the personalisation of peacebuilding through the stories of people who are the intended beneficiaries of its actions. This thesis seeks to open up and challenge the current measures of success and the location of power by introducing voices and experiences of Mende people located in the Southern and Eastern provinces of Sierra Leone. I have attempted to open up a reflexive space where simple questions can be re-examined and the location of recovery can be seen as a space influenced, shaped and performed in the context of diverse influences. I draw on my personal experience living in Bo, Sierra Leone for two months in 2014 and local level actors' subjective reflections on individual and communal notions of recovery, post-conflict. My findings are reflected in “building blocks” that uncover a partial story of personal perspectives on recovery. The story suggests a de-centred and complex “local” within the existing context and realigns the understanding of subject and agency within peacebuilding. This collection of experiences, stories and encounters reshapes the notion of peace as an everyday activity with the aim of improving well-being on a personal level. It is also a part of the peacebuilding process that exists outside of the traditional organisational lens. My main contribution has been in allowing alternative space(s) of peacebuilding and peace-shaping to have a platform that is not restricted by the confined epistemic “expert” community toward an understanding of “progress” as an experiential and subjective process of recovery. This approach sought to challenge the current site of legitimacy, power and knowledge, and in order to achieve this aim I drew on a new methodological toolkit and the absorption of key concepts from other disciplines such as managerialism and the sociological concept of the “stranger”. My research offers an opportunity to observe and utilise information sourced from the creativity and spontaneity of the everyday lived experiences of Sierra Leoneans and ordinary phenomena connected with this.

Why do people transgress legal borders on beaches by the lakes and the coastline, despite thefact of a Swedish law defending the beach and a rigorous administration mirroring it? Nationalstudies show great differences in regional and local practice regarding the administration ofthe law of beach defense, Strandskyddslagen.This licentiate thesis explores the administration of Swedish beaches from both an actorand a structural point of view. It was carried out as a case study of three municipalities situatedby the southeast part of the Baltic and inland. The interviewed actors were regional andlocal civil servants including local politicians. The purpose of the thesis was to reveal whatimplications daily practice among civil servants and local politicians have on the forms ofhow beaches are appropriated and dominated. The thesis focus on the dualism of the privateand the public space. Drawing on structural and poststructural theory and qualitative methodologythe importance of methodology is argued. The author use a triangulation of differenttheories and methods. Grounded on interviews, five areas were thematized; ideology, power,professional cultures, communication and mirroring. The thesis reveals that chains of causesto the heterogeneity of the local and regional beach administration, can be investigated moreefficiently by using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodology.The author found that the administrators personal ideology in relation to the ideology expressedby the law is of importance in the daily practice. He also show how the two mainparts of Strandskyddslagen contribute to the development of two identifiable approaches inthe civil servants practice. This finding he connects with the development of professional staffcultures. Eventually the thesis discuss the importance of interior communication betweendifferent levels of the administration and underpin the rising cost problem when municipalitiesare delegated the main responsibility for mirroring the beaches. This leading to a tendencyof a growing appearance of corporate influence on local public politics regarding exploitationof land close to beaches.The author propose a closer communication between regional and municipal environment-and building administrators. He emphasizes the importance of transparency, communicationand education at both the regional, local administrative and political level of the beachadministration.

The thesis is an examination of Aboriginal cultural tourism based on interviews with national and international tourists. The research found that the opportunity for tourists to share personal intimacy with Aboriginal people often outweighed the attraction to the cultural aspects of the tours and that this can contribute to the discourse of reconciliation.

Over the last decade, education-focused research/studies on young queers (or same-sex attracted young people) have highlighted the many problems or difficulties they face growing up in a homophobic, heterosexist society. Strategies to address these issues (proposed in numerous research articles and reports) have largely focused on the school setting. I argue that these strategies are limited by heterosexual norms, which regulate and contain in advance what is possible (for queers) within the formal school system. I examine the ways in which these heterosexual norms work to constrain the queer subject in education-focused research and studies on young queers. / Within this field of study, young queers have largely been characterized as victims: of homophobic abuse and harassment, and neglect by families and schools. They’re said to be lonely and isolated, at risk of attempted suicide, unsafe sex, drug and alcohol abuse, and homelessness. I argue that these representations convey a negative portrait of young queers as wounded subjects. I illustrate how the emphasis on the wounded queer subject can work against the interests of young queers. In particular, it obscures those queer perspectives involving agency: first, queer cultures and communities; second, the knowledge and experiences of those who have gained confidence in their queerness, who have queer social and sexual lives. These (agentic) queers can offer us ways of understanding how young queers move beyond isolation and loneliness. / This study highlights the importance, for many young queers, of having opportunities and spaces where they can connect with each other. Socialization and sexualization among young queers involves a certain openness being and doing queer a practice which is unintelligible within most education-focused research/studies on young queers. This is illustrated and explored through comparative analysis of queer subjectivities in two differentiated spheres: on the one hand education-focused research and studies relating to the school context, and on the other gay/lesbian/queer studies and literature relating to queer social and sexual contexts. The key contexts and themes examined here are: early sexual experience and beats, queer cultures and communities, and queer youth support and social groups.

The thesis is an examination of Aboriginal cultural tourism based on interviews with national and international tourists. The research found that the opportunity for tourists to share personal intimacy with Aboriginal people often outweighed the attraction to the cultural aspects of the tours and that this can contribute to the discourse of reconciliation.